Dark season three spoilers follow.
Time is infinite, but unfortunately, Dark is not, as Netflix decided to end the show with a third and final season this year. With its multiple timelines and three alternate realities, the show could have easily unravelled by the end, but against all odds, creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar managed to pull everything together into one hugely satisfying conclusion.
Much of that is down to the meticulous planning it must have taken to keep track of everything. As well as juggling multiple versions of each character, the writers also had to conclude each personal arc in ways that made sense within the wider narrative.
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Not only does Dark succeed in this regard, living up to its truly lofty aspirations, but the final episode hits especially hard for fans who have stuck with the show since the very beginning.
While that's always true of finales to some degree, there's one scene in particular which actually harks back to a moment from the very first episode, subtly tying the entire story up in one deeply meaningful knot.
To understand that better, we must first oh-so-briefly recap what happens at the end of Dark season three. Deep breath...
After some dimension-hopping and a whole lot of head-scratching, Jonas and Martha prevent the apocalypse from happening by stopping the Tannhaus car crash. With no tragedy to draw inspiration from, Tannhaus never invents time travel, and because of this, certain people who exist outside of time vanish completely, including Jonas and Martha.
Their heart-wrenching sacrifice wasn't in vain, though. By giving up their lives, Jonas and Martha are able to preserve the original timeline and guarantee life will continue.
Following this goodbye, Dark's final episode cuts to one last scene where Hannah eats dinner with her husband Wöller and other friends in their home. At one point, Hannah stares briefly at the same kind of yellow coat Jonas wore throughout the show, prompting a strange bout of déjà vu.
Hannah goes on to say this exact moment feels like a dream she had the previous night, like something she's lived through before – and she's right. Time circles round and round in an infinite loop throughout Dark, weaving in multiple timelines and even alternate dimensions.
However, it's what happens next that cements this in a very real and heartbreaking way.
Turning our attention to Hannah's pregnancy, Katharina asks what the baby's name will be. At first, Hannah says that she doesn't know, but then she pauses, almost as if she can hear someone, and then just before the final credits roll, she says, "I think Jonas is a beautiful name."
It's a perfect ending, tying in all of the show's biggest themes while also acknowledging the pivotal role Jonas played across all three seasons. However, it's even more perfect than you might realise, and that's because of how this moment calls back to one very specific scene in the very first episode (as shared by Redditor perrygadu).
Long before Jonas and Martha knew what lay ahead, they shared a brief, seemingly mundane conversation which actually laid the foundation for everything to come.
The scene in question takes place around 30 minutes into the pilot when Martha starts to experience déjà vu: "The light, the forest. It's as if all of this has already happened before."
Jonas responds with a classic theory about this phenomenon, saying, "If the world is a simulation, déjà vu is a glitch in the matrix."
Martha suggests an alternative, theorising that it could actually be "a message from the other side".
Now remember how Hannah looked at the yellow coat and then paused before suggesting "Jonas" as a name for her baby? It seems that this conversation from episode one foreshadowed a deeper meaning for this final scene, implying that Jonas somehow connected with Hannah from "the other side" and suggested this name to her.
Even though this version of him has been erased from existence, a new version of the cycle will now begin again with a new baby called Jonas. Not only does this reflect how the timelines loop into each other over and over again, it also creates a loop which rather fittingly connects the first and last episodes of this show together in an endless cycle.
Time is infinite, and although Dark is not, the impact of this show will continue to be felt by fans who joined Jonas and Martha on this extraordinary, time-spanning saga.
Dark seasons one, two and three are all available on Netflix now.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
